FS#42743 - [firefox] Flash movies are not shown on Intel GPUs

Attached to Project: Arch Linux
Opened by Manuel Reimer (M-Reimer) - Tuesday, 11 November 2014, 15:51 GMT
Last edited by Jan de Groot (JGC) - Friday, 14 November 2014, 11:40 GMT
Task Type Bug Report
Category Packages: Extra
Status Closed
Assigned To Jan de Groot (JGC)
Ionut Biru (wonder)
Evangelos Foutras (foutrelis)
Architecture x86_64
Severity Medium
Priority Normal
Reported Version
Due in Version Undecided
Due Date Undecided
Percent Complete 100%
Votes 5
Private No

Details

Maybe other GPUs are affected, too, but I can definitively reproduce this problem on my Intel based laptop. At least one more person on the Archlinux-users list verified the problem. He also uses an Intel GPU.

Starting with Firefox 33, Flash movies are only displayed as plain white space. I kept downgrading Firefox until I tried a Mozilla nightly build which worked well. Just to be sure, today, I downloaded Firefox 33.1 as prebuilt binary package directly from the Mozilla servers and the Mozilla build works well. Flash movies are displayed as expected.

This means, that, starting with Firefox 33, something seems to have changed in the Arch Linux packages which breaks Flash movies.

Unfortunately I need flash movies for school but using the Mozilla build is a working workaround for me. Would be nice if the Arch Linux packages could be fixed somehow.
This task depends upon

Closed by  Jan de Groot (JGC)
Friday, 14 November 2014, 11:40 GMT
Reason for closing:  Fixed
Comment by Marcel Korpel (Marcel-) - Tuesday, 11 November 2014, 16:49 GMT
To be more specific, youtube.com and vimeo.com work just fine, but several other flash-based content reveal this issue: a black (not white, in my case) frame with controls (and rotating busy-indicator), but no video playback. Audio is just fine.

For instance, I experience this on http://www.cultura.nl/kijk-live.html

I can confirm that the issue doesn't appear using a binary package from AUR (e.g. firefox-beta-bin).
Comment by Doug Newgard (Scimmia) - Tuesday, 11 November 2014, 20:07 GMT
Do you guys have gstreamer and all of it's plugins installed? The given link seems to work fine here (ati gpu), though it only flashes the video then displays a message about legal restrictions not allowing it to be played.
Comment by Marcel Korpel (Marcel-) - Wednesday, 12 November 2014, 00:14 GMT
Sorry, I should have thought of the GeoIP-blocking of Netherlands Public Broadcasting. I'll look for another link tomorrow. Meanwhile, I did:

$ pacman -Q|grep gstreamer
gstreamer 1.4.4-1
gstreamer0.10 0.10.36-4
gstreamer0.10-base 0.10.36-3
gstreamer0.10-python 0.10.22-2
Comment by Doug Newgard (Scimmia) - Wednesday, 12 November 2014, 00:31 GMT
I'm specifically asking about the packages that start with "gst-"
Comment by Marcel Korpel (Marcel-) - Wednesday, 12 November 2014, 00:50 GMT
I now installed all plugins using pacman -S gstreamer0.10-plugins.

$ pacman -Q|grep gst-
gst-plugins-base-libs 1.4.4-1

And here is a video where I only see a black screen, but audio is ok:
http://ed.ted.com/lessons/how-playing-an-instrument-benefits-your-brain-anita-collins
Comment by Doug Newgard (Scimmia) - Wednesday, 12 November 2014, 04:16 GMT
"I now installed all plugins using pacman -S gstreamer0.10-plugins."

No, you didn't. Firefox uses gstreamer 1.x, not gstreamer 0.10.
Comment by Lone_Wolf (Lone_Wolf) - Wednesday, 12 November 2014, 10:48 GMT
Both links work fine for me.

$ pacman -Q firefox
firefox 33.1-1
$ pacman -Qs gst
local/gst-libav 1.4.4-1
Gstreamer libav Plugin
local/gst-plugins-bad 1.4.4-1
GStreamer Multimedia Framework Bad Plugins
local/gst-plugins-base 1.4.4-1
GStreamer Multimedia Framework Base Plugins
local/gst-plugins-base-libs 1.4.4-1
GStreamer Multimedia Framework Base Plugin libraries
local/gst-plugins-good 1.4.4-1
GStreamer Multimedia Framework Good Plugins
local/gst-plugins-ugly 1.4.4-1
GStreamer Multimedia Framework Ugly Plugins
local/gstreamer 1.4.4-1
GStreamer Multimedia Framework
local/phonon-qt4-gstreamer 4.8.0-2
Phonon GStreamer backend for Qt4
local/phonon-qt5-gstreamer 4.8.0-2
Phonon GStreamer backend for Qt5
local/pkgstats 2.3-6
submits a list of installed packages to the Arch Linux project
$

Comment by Evangelos Foutras (foutrelis) - Wednesday, 12 November 2014, 15:11 GMT
I'm somewhat certain this is caused by building against system cairo (requested in  FS#36972 ).

I'm using the legacy catalyst drivers on my laptop and the video from comment #1 is distorted heavily. (Screenshot attached.)

I remember seeing similar glitches in a flash background used on a page once and rebuilding firefox with bundled cairo fixed it. Didn't pay much attention to it and attributed the failure to the catalyst drivers. :P

I believe the issue only affects flash objects that specify wmode="transparent".

I'll push an update with bundled cairo which should fix this issue.
   firefox-distorted-flash.png (71.6 KiB)
Comment by Marcel Korpel (Marcel-) - Wednesday, 12 November 2014, 15:12 GMT
I now did install those plugins, but still no luck at both links.

$ pacman -Qs gst
local/gst-libav 1.4.4-1
Gstreamer libav Plugin
local/gst-plugins-bad 1.4.4-1
GStreamer Multimedia Framework Bad Plugins
local/gst-plugins-base 1.4.4-1
GStreamer Multimedia Framework Base Plugins
local/gst-plugins-base-libs 1.4.4-1
GStreamer Multimedia Framework Base Plugin libraries
local/gst-plugins-good 1.4.4-1
GStreamer Multimedia Framework Good Plugins
local/gst-plugins-ugly 1.4.4-1
GStreamer Multimedia Framework Ugly Plugins
local/gstreamer 1.4.4-1
GStreamer Multimedia Framework
local/gstreamer0.10 0.10.36-4
GStreamer Multimedia Framework
local/gstreamer0.10-base 0.10.36-3
GStreamer Multimedia Framework Base plugin libraries
local/gstreamer0.10-python 0.10.22-2
Python bindings for GStreamer 0.10
Comment by Marcel Korpel (Marcel-) - Wednesday, 12 November 2014, 15:14 GMT
@Evangelos: I'll try building FF myself with bundled cairo and see what happens.
Comment by Evangelos Foutras (foutrelis) - Wednesday, 12 November 2014, 16:58 GMT
Should be fixed in firefox 33.1-2.

(I was also able to reproduce it on my netbook which has Intel graphics.)
Comment by Marcel Korpel (Marcel-) - Wednesday, 12 November 2014, 17:27 GMT
Video's now play fine for me, even without the earlier mentioned gstreamer plugins.
Comment by Manuel Reimer (M-Reimer) - Thursday, 13 November 2014, 18:54 GMT
I can verify, that the last update fixes my problem. Today, I used the "Arch Linux packaged" Firefox to work with my online school books and had no issues.

Thanks for the fast fix!

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